Unexpected Questions
by EmeraldGarmadon
Summary: Nico receives an unexpected question after returning to Camp Half-Blood. A little fic about Solangelo's first date, Nico's thoughts about having a boyfriend, and Percy being unable to keep his mouth shut. Written for LOTRgirl11.


Nico hated painting.

Hazel had agreed with him that the Hades cabin needed to be _seriously_ renovated, and now that the Gaea wars were finally dying down, there was finally a chance to do that. Unfortunately, he was the one stuck doing the renovation. He'd decided to stick with a darkish color, which meant half his shirts now had maroon paint on them. Now he could add his Fall Out Boy shirt to the list, too. _Dangit._ It was pretty new, too - the _American Beauty/American Psycho_ design was relatively recent.

Nico sighed, climbing down the stepladder he'd been standing on. He had paint in his hair, too. Time for a shower.

"Uh, Nico? Can I come in?"

He jumped, quickly pulling his shirt back on. "Yeah," he shouted. His unexpected visitor walked in. "Hey, Will."

"Hi, Nico." He gave Nico's paint-splattered outfit a once-over. "Nice highlights."

"Ha-ha," Nico laughed sarcastically, running his fingers through his hair. "What's up?"

"Oh...nothing much," Will said. "Just wanted to check up on my friend. What's up with you?"

"Painting the cabin. Whoever built it clearly didn't know any actual Hades kids."

Will laughed awkwardly. _Awkwardly?_ Huh. That was new. As a son of Apollo, Will was not any type of shy. In fact, he was the complete opposite of shy. But today, he was moving around antsily, brushing his blonde hair out of his eyes.

"Are you okay, dude?" Nico finally asked.

Will straightened up abruptly. "Yeah. I'm fine. Totally fine." The pair descended into awkward silence, which lasted long enough that Nico actually turned to leave. He really needed that shower, after all.

"Yeah. Good talk. Okay, bye..."

Will coughed. "Hey, Nico, are you doing anything on Saturday?"

"Um, no. Except painting, probably, but I'd honestly rather not."

"Do you wanna go to the movies?"

"Sure," Nico answered. Anything to get out of another day of cabin renovation. "Who's going? Percy? Connor, Travis? Anyone?"

"Um, actually...nobody else is going."

Nico shot him a confused look. "Nobody's going? I just kinda assumed there was a group going, especially since the theater is a while away..."

"No, that's not what I meant. What I meant was...um." He trailed off, mumbling something incoherent under his breath.

Nico looked even more confused. "What was that?"

Will cleared his throat, "I said, would you like to go on a date with me?"

There was dead silence for at least two whole minutes. Then, Nico ran out the cabin door.

 **XXXXX**

There was still one good shirt without paint on it. Granted, it was a skull and crossbones t-shirt, but it wasn't like he didn't wear those all the time. It _did_ glow in the dark, which made Nico cross his fingers they'd be back before sunset. _Please don't think I'm a complete dork, Will._

Thankfully, the conversation had gone (mostly) uphill after Nico's unfortunate running-out-the-door incident. He'd only gotten a few feet before he stopped, _wait Nico what are you doing_ , and Will caught up to him. "Look, I'm really sorry -" he began.

"You don't have to be sorry," Nico said. "I'm just...surprised, that's all. I never really thought..." He shook his head. "You like _guys_?"

Will shrugged. "Yeah."

Eventually, Nico had finally agreed to go on a date with Will.

Nervously, he walked out to the front of Camp Half-Blood, where Will was waiting in his car. "Hey," he said, sounding casual.

"H-hey," Nico stammered, sounding far less casual and much more strung-up. He pretty much stammered the entire car ride, and ended up turning up the radio to drown out his awkwardness. Will didn't seem to mind, quieting down whenever Nico seemed uncomfortable. It was unusual, seeing a son of Apollo acting quiet and gentlemanly.

Nico's phone buzzed as they pulled up to the theater. It was a message from Percy. _Dude, I heard you're on a date with Will Solace._

Although tempted to simply ignore it, Nico texted back, _Don't tell anyone._ It was bad enough that Percy knew he was gay. He couldn't imagine what the seaweed brain would say if he found out that he had a boyfriend, and a fellow demigod boyfriend at that... _"Boyfriend"_ _is getting a bit ahead of yourself, isn't it, di Angelo? After all, you're only on your first date._

Turns out, the movie was terrible. The boys got most of their fun out of whispering snarky ("witty," Will insisted, not "snarky") comments to each other, summarily getting _shush_ ed by the people sitting behind them, and of course, eating way more popcorn then was good for either of them. "Gods, Nico," Will said as they walked out of the theater, "I never knew you were so funny."

"Hey, I can be a lot more than just the dark-and-gloomy death kid, you know."

Will laughed. "I guess I underestimated you Hades kids."

"That's the last mistake you'll ever make," Nico said, putting on a mock-threatening voice, making Will laugh even harder.

"You know," he said as they got back in the car, "it was kind of a relief to me when Percy told me you were gay."

" _Percy_ told you that?" Nico half-shouted. "That son of a...a sea god."

"I don't think he meant to. It just kinda slipped out. I mean, it was comforting knowing I wasn't the only one at camp, but also...I just really like you. You're a great guy."

Nico could feel himself turning red, and actually found he was glad for the dark, even if it meant he had a dorky glowing skull on his shirt. (Although, Will was wearing a Green Lantern t-shirt, so it didn't really matter.) To distract from his sudden awkwardness, he switched the radio back on. The station was playing some rock 'n' roll power ballad. "Oh, gods," he groaned, "sappy music." Secretly, though, he kind of enjoyed it. It added to the atmosphere, making it feel almost like a movie. The fact that Nico usually hated romance movies was beside the point.

At some point, towards the end of the song, Will reached over and tried to hold Nico's hand. Nico looked up at him, surprised. "Oh, sorry," Will said hastily. "Is this not okay?"

"Oh, no. This is fine, actually."

The son of the god of death falling for the son of the god of light used to seem like a strange idea to Nico. But now, in Will Solace's car, driving back from a date, with dorky t-shirts on and popcorn stuck in his teeth, it felt nothing but right.

Maybe "boyfriends" wasn't such a stretch after all.


End file.
